Steam Greenlight: Horror Games Worth Voting For

For those of you who don’t know, Steam Greenlight is a platform that encourages users to pitch their game ideas using compelling gameplay videos, pictures and summaries. If a certain title generates enough interest through voting, the game will be available for download or purchase on Steam. I originally intended to cover all types of games that piqued my interest from Steam Greenlight. It’s strange how this happened, considering I get scared easily even if I’m just five minutes into a game. However, most if not all my choices turned out to be horror themed games so I decided to focus on this area in particular.

1. Asylum

Okay, I found this game really creepy. At first, I was acting really brave and thought that this was a Dear Esther type game where all you do is find clues by walking around. However, I turned out to be extremely wrong. I was able to try it firsthand through Senscape’s demo available for PC, Mac, and Linux. It’s a first person experience where you point to click what to investigate or where to go. There are lots of interesting stuff to investigate like photos and articles posted around the Asylum. These clues give you an insight on the disturbing events that transpired. The surroundings reminded me of the mansion from the first Resident Evil title. Yet, Asylum’s area is much more chilling since you don’t know if you’re expecting vengeful ghosts or crazy lunatics.

Like Slender, it’s the ambience that gets to you. You hear your character breathing heavily and sometimes you get paranoid if that’s just you or someone else. I haven’t encountered anyone threatening yet while playing the demo. However if you watch the gameplay video on full screen, I guarantee you that there will be moments where you’ll jump off your seat.

While Rebirth doesn’t have much material to showcase its gameplay and premise except for pictures, I find the concept itself intriguing. When I was a lot younger, there was this flash game I used to play on this site called Newgrounds. I forgot what the game was called, but the game was a survival horror game. The set-up involved you fighting zombies at night, and when morning comes you are to allot hours for finding weapons, materials for your barricade, and for other survivors as well. How you choose to spend your time reflects during your battle with the undead at night, so it pays to strategize well.

Rebirth appears to have a similar concept but with much more features and potentials. This title offers a sandbox horror experience wherein you fight against your needs, other survivors, and whatever evil lurks out there. In the day, you are expected to scavenge, hunt and explore for supplies or allies to help you. During the afternoon, you must fend off dangerous survivors. In addition to that, you must constantly check on your barricades and the batteries on your flashlight for the looming darkness. At night, it’s not clear who or what you’ll be facing but the main goal is to survive.

Despite the lack of more substantial previews, I’m interested to see how this game turns out. To vote for it, click this link.

3. Slenderman Adaptations

Faceless

If you guys remember, my first article here in Unreality was about the beta of Parsec’s game Slender. However, this isn’t a game related to Parsec’s title but it’s also a game based on the creepy myth of the Slenderman. As I scanned through the game’s photos and viewed the videos they had available, I realized that this game employs the same tactic as Parsec’s game—using the tool of ambient music and atmosphere. What makes this game unique from all the maps based on Slender, there’s actually a story and it progresses with four different protagonists. There are also different areas to explore so you won’t bored exploring just one vicinity.

Another interesting feature with Faceless is the fact that it is a four-player co-op game. I think this is great because what’s funnier than getting scared to death than experiencing it with your friends? You basically start off split from one another and I think you have to find your friends. The description says that the audio from voice chat works only if you’re near one of your friends. This is an interesting spin on games based on the Slenderman.

By this time, I accept any comments that call me a Slenderman fanatic. In all seriousness though, I’ve honestly breezed by other Slenderman adaptations on Greenlight and this one stood out like Faceless. It’s hard not to be impressed by how some developers show their take on the myth especially if it’s done well.

In this game, you are tasked to find a boy inside a creepy orphanage at night. Your only tool is your smartphone. I wonder if that works as just a light or you can do other things with it. In Hotel 626, you had a camera and you had to take pictures in the dark. The result was not all rainbows! If other parts of the game allow you to do other things with the smartphone then I think it would be a cool addition. I was actually watching the videos available, and one of them startled me so it definitely has my interest piqued!

About The Author

BennyB

Hi guys! My name is Benny Bedlam and when I'm not writing for Unreality Magazine, I write for my own blog called Commander Bedlam. It's mostly about commentary on video games, interviews with people from the industry, and some tech related advice. I also manage my software development team called Team Bedlam.